St. Peterburg Museum of Art showcases Caravaggio masterpieces

Caravaggio masterpieces showcased in St. Pete

The St. Pete Museum of Art has a display of Baroque masterpieces. FOX 13's Travis Anthony takes us there.

ST PETERSBURG, Fla. - For the first time in the U.S., an exhibit from Italy showcases masterpieces of the Baroque period of art. The St. Peterburg Museum of Art will host this exhibit until March 22nd.

In art history, the Baroque Period spanned over 150 years as artists used rich colors, emotional music or graphic sculptures to capture dramatic and intense moments. The artists from the era included Caravaggio, Rubens, Bach and Handel. The style, while born in Rome, spread across Europe and is still admired and copied today.

The St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts is presenting a baroque exhibit titled "In Caravaggio's Light: Baroque Masterpieces from the Fandazione Roberto Longhi."

What they're saying:

Curator Dr. Stanton Thomas described it this way: "This is an extraordinary exhibition which comprises of 40 paintings from the private collection of Roberto Longhi... He founded an incredible foundation which is outside of Florence, Italy."

The centerpiece of the exhibit is "Boy Bitten by a Lizard", which is one of two Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio pieces in the show.

Caravaggio Artwork

As one of the founders of the Baroque movement, the intense moment captures the pain and shock of the young man with bold colors in stark contract with a dark background.

"One of the things that you'll see in the exhibition is that it's very dark," said Thomas, "And we wanted to give it that cinematic effect. You know when you walk into the movies, it's very dark and all of a sudden there's this revelation of light. That's very much what these paintings were intended to do."

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The exhibit is designed to draw the visitor into the emotion of the artwork, to see the dramatic colors and to experience the intensity of the moment captured on canvas.

"This is the first time that these pictures have been exhibited as a group here in the United States," said Thomas.  "I should also point out that the Baroque doesn't just die, it's alive and with us today. Not only can you see quotations of it in films and television shows like 'Stranger Things', but we have another exhibition called the Baroque Continuum."

That exhibit features contemporary artists who were inspired by the Baroque period.

What's next:

To see the exhibits In Caravaggio's Light and the Baroque Continuum, both are current exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. You can learn more about the exhibits and others on display as well here.